For News Corp. and Murdoch it's a confounding situation. They had locked down this scandal. With as much clout as there is accumulated in one company and in one man in Britain, they had closed almost every avenue of investigation. Now comes the New York Times showing that British police, government, and media took a dive for Murdoch. Institutions fight for their own lives and reputations. They might have been willing to protect Murdoch and News Corp. but if it becomes necessary to have to throw him overboard to save themselves, they will.

That's the process that's started.

Business Secretary Vince Cable has unveiled plans for a squeeze on public funding for scientific research.

He urged universities to do "more for less" and said taxpayers should only back research that has a commercial use or was academically outstanding.

Mr Cable said in a speech in London that the government "values" UK science and research and spends £4.3bn a year.

However, Lord Rees, president of the Royal Society, said cutting science funding would be a false economy.

Fireworks occurred during a town hall in Canton, OH, last night when Rep. John Boccieri (D-OH) unexpectedly showed up at his Republican opponent's public event. Challenger Jim Renacci and Boccieri sparred for about 70 minutes in an unofficial first debate. And ThinkProgress was in attendance.

During the event, an African-American constituent named Robert Thompson asked Renacci what he would do on the issue of civil rights. Renacci's response: local control. He called civil rights "local issues" and said the solution is "to get our federal government out of the way" because "it's not the federal government's job":

New York Times Co. was the biggest gainer in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and bullish options trading surged to a six-month high on renewed speculation the newspaper publisher may be acquired.
...
Billionaire Carlos Slim, who controls Mexico's biggest wireless and land-line phone companies, owns about 7 percent of New York Times's Class A shares. He also has warrants to buy enough stock to give him control of 16 percent of the shares.

"The rumor mill is being cranked up again saying Carlos Slim wants to buy the company," said Edward Atorino, an analyst at Benchmark Co. LLC in New York.

Trinity Ltd., owner of China retail rights for Savile Row suitmaker Gieves & Hawkes, will add 50 or more stores in smaller Chinese cities as incomes from booming coal and car industries spur demand for luxury clothes.

The store openings will give Trinity more than 500 outlets in China in 2011, after a similar level of expansion this year, Managing Director Sunny Wong Yat Ming said in an interview in Hong Kong. Locations will include Inner Mongolia, where Trinity plans to open 17 stores, and Zhoushan in eastern Zhejiang province, he said.

On Saturday, after years of pressure from law enforcement officials, Internet classified ad web site Craigslist bowed to demands to remove its "Adult Services" section which critics charged encouraged prostitution and other sex-related crimes. Or it least it appears that it did. Without explanation, following the latest in a series of open letters from state attorneys general decrying the third party content permitted on the site, Craigslist replaced the "Adult Services" link that formerly appeared on the front page of the site with a white-on-black "censored" bar. Whether this move will substantially affect the rate of illegal prostitution across the country remains to be seen. Many, even some of Craigslist's critics, appear to have their doubts. If nothing else, however, this latest turn in the AGs v. Craigslist saga underscores the misguided nature of the AGs' tactics as well as the fundamental disagreement that we (and Congress) have with the AGs' vision of how the Internet should operate.